Letter Never Sent

I’ve been back from Oklahoma for about two days. It was fun and relaxing, although occasionally stressful. It seems to be that way when you have to stay with other people. I would prefer that all people lived in shells like snails and turtles. That way if you had to leave your town you would never need to invade another person’s private space. You could just tuck your arms and legs into your person shell and go about your own business.

The night before we left for the drive north I bought a new digital camera as a present to myself. It’s a Nikon Coolpix like my previous camera. This one is the 5200, which is smaller than the Nikon 775 I bought almost exactly three years ago when I spent Christmas in Louisville, Kentucky for my grandmother’s funeral. The 5200 is a 5.1 megapixel camera whereas the 775 was a 2.1 megapixel camera. Everything else is pretty similar, although it is neat to see all the enhancements they have made to the Coolpix line over the past three years. My favorite new thing is the panorama assist mode.

I took some photos over the holiday break. I had this week off from work, and I think that’s the first time I’ve had off for Christmas since I took a leave of absence to attend my grandmother’s funeral. It’s been nice. Here’s a photo from when I helped feed the cattle at Jody’s parents’ place.

There’s nothing to it, every day in the winter when there’s not enough grass for the cattle to graze you have to go out and give them sacks of feed made from dry molasses, alfalfa pellets, and feed corn. Keeping livestock is something a lot of people in the area do since the land is too rocky for farming. I asked Marty a lot of questions about raising cattle since I’m curious about it. Daily life in the US depends on farming and ranching yet many people know nothing about it. I also learned that cows normally give birth in the fall or winter. When we were there there were three or four brand new calves. There seemed to be a new one each day. You notice this because when you go out to feed all the cows they’ll come up and tagging along will be the new babies. One day I got up early and went out to do the feeding by myself. The part I hated the most was calling the cows to come up from the pasture. I felt like an idiot hooting and yelling, “Come on cows.” over and over. It’s difficult to yell loudly when it’s so quiet all you can hear is the wind blowing.

All things considered, Christmas was very nice. I got several nice presents from a few people. Much more than I deserved. I am ready to usher in 2005, and I look back on the past year with the usual mix of feelings. I am glad for everything I’ve experienced. Much has happened, so it seems when you look back and add it up. I hope the holidays found you all well and happy and I hope that the coming year brings to you a bounty of satisfaction and success. Here’s one last photo I took of Josalyn, red-faced from the cold, as the sun set this weekend: